How The Did GM Pay Back Its Loans “in Full And Ahead of Schedule”? Well, It Didn’t.
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre has bragged in TV commercials and newspaper columns that GM has paid back its bailout “in full and ahead of schedule.”
As with the Pontiac Aztek, an ugly exterior masks an ever darker problem: Whitacre is being fanciful to the point of deceit. GM received $50 billion in TARP funds (never mind that TARP was only supposed to cover financial institutions). About $7 billion of that came in the form of a straight-up, low-interest loan. And about $13 billion came in the form of an escrow account.
So how has GM, which lost $38 billion in 2007 even as it sold 9.4 million cars, paid back its debt? It took money from the escrow account to pay back the $6.7 billion loan.
Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents gave you $20 to buy them a Christmas present? You bought them something worth $3 and pocketed the rest? That’s what GM has just done.
Oh, and do you remember when you hit your parents up for college? GM has applied for a $10 billion, low-interest loan from the government to modernize its plants so its cars will meet new federal mileage standards.
If you think all this constitutes paying back their debt in full and ahead of schedule, you might want to check out the new line of GM cars. And hope that the company’s safety engineers are better at math than their CEO.
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25 Comments to How The Did GM Pay Back Its Loans “in Full And Ahead of Schedule”? Well, It Didn’t.
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@NCMan28025
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@NCMan28025
People like you won’t have their opinions changed no matter what people say, so it’s useless to argue with you.
Ed Whitacre wasn’t appointed. He was voted in by the board of GM. The rest of what you wrote is speculation and hogwash. Still, it has nothing to do with Obama or the Democrats.
You know nothing, yet you presume to know everything. Learn a field first.
The New York Times …
The New York Times confirms: General Motors’ claim that they have paid back taxpayers is false. More Obamamotors lies. Go out and buy a Ford Mustang instead.
@ZhangyXD They …
@ZhangyXD They didn’t. GM paid back $6.7 billion of a $49 billion loan. The $6.7 billion wasn’t from GM profits, it was from another bucket of bailout money.
@DeepLyricist …
@DeepLyricist Nothing to do with Obama or Democrats? Obama appointed Ed Whitacre. Whitacre has zero experience in the auto industry. Whitacre assisted Rahm Emanuel with several shady deals where he ‘earned’ $16 million. The shareholders of GM were screwed to benefit the unions. Yeah, nothing at all to do with Obama or the Democrats.
@rdrakken Talk …
@rdrakken Talk about uneducated. Ed Whitacre is saying GM paid back all of its loan from the bailout. They paid $6.7 billion of a $49 billion loan. Its a lie and the money they paid back they got from another government loan. Neil Barofsky reported this. He is the Inspector General over TARP, appointed by Obama. Whitacre was appointed and has zero auto industry experience and he helped Rahm Emanuel with some shady deals. Educated now?
@phlegmish Our …
@phlegmish Our Social Security is broke. It is over 35 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities and the US doesn’t have enough RICH people to tax to pay for the system. The same with our Medicaid and Medicare systems. Broke and unfunded. Stop with the flaming liberal bs.
@phlegmish Notice …
@phlegmish Notice you didn’t debate a single statement I made. Explain why Canadians come to America for our health care services? Long lines and waiting months to get the simpliest health care is the answer. The Prime Minister of Newfoundland recently traveled to Florida for heart surgery and admitted this about your ‘awesome’ “Free” health care. Keep it. Im betting you’ll change the debate to something new now?
@DPSPAA1 Lib/ …
@DPSPAA1 Lib/Progressives have to put people in groups based on race, sex, gender ect. They do not believe in individualism. If people think for themselves instead of as a group, free thinking takes over and they will see through this type of politics. Notice how they use the “us” vs. ‘them” trick to keep folks fighting.
@phlegmish I have a …
@phlegmish I have a couple of questions for you. Do you think Wall Street is all Republican? Do you think I am a Republican? Do you blame Republicans and Republican policy for this mess we are in? Do you feel there are any Democrats with any culpability in this matter? People like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, for example?
@phlegmish
Your …
@phlegmish
Your topic is a moving target. You said what happens to buying American, I told you. Maybe you would prefer to debate with someone who knows less than I do about what is/has happened.
Bill Clinton signed into law the repeal of glass-steagal and fannie and freddie and congressional mandates started this debacle in the first pllace.
Why would another Gay Canadian give a rat’s about what is going on down here in the good old USA? .
@TAMARLANE Don’t …
@TAMARLANE Don’t forget that Ford is still standing because they ran out of money first and had to borrow before the banking collapse when they still could. They currently have a much bigger debt load to carry than the others. Japanese auto makers also received bailouts fro their gov’t. It was all due to the money supply being frozen. It’s wall street and the deregulation by republicans you should be about.
@phlegmish You seem …
@phlegmish You seem to think I am opposed to czars per se.
I am opposed to communist czars, perverse czars, eugenicist czars, socialist czars, Maolst czars. I don’t remember any czars in those categories in the Republican administration.
America’s auto imducstry did not fail completely. Ford Motor company was still standing.. I would prefer to buy Japanese made autos to American made ones if the Federal Government owned them.
First: GM’s good …
First: GM’s good cars were always made overseas. They have been shafting Americans since they went to all Front-wheel drive car on us. Meanwhile in europe and Austrailia GM is making the cars we want. We don’t see them until GM’s in trouble (Solstice, Sky, The whole Pontiac line, GTOs, Catera/CTS)…GM AND Ford continue to shoot themselves in the foot building us crap. Ford is about to give police fleets Tauruses….Taurus!???
@NCMan28025 Canada …
@NCMan28025 Canada is an ally with the US in Afghanistan because we feel it is a just war. Iraq had nothing to do with 911 and you know it. Members of the ruling Baath Party generally are ideologically committed to secularism, about 95 percent of Iraqis are Muslim and Islam is the officially recognized state religion. Sadam let people practice what they wanted. More or less.
@NCMan28025 Our …
@NCMan28025 Our taxes pay for it and insurance companies don’t sit in the middle sucking up profits. Our cars costs less overall per person and is much more efficient. The ultra rich pay far less taxes then they used to in the past. That is why your middle class is disapearing so fast. I don’t understand why you would argue that unless you are a billionaire yourself paying yourself 100 million a year from a failing company.
@phlegmish While I …
@phlegmish While I do agree that Reagan had a hard time with the veto pen, Clinton didn’t reduce it- Gingrich did.
Do yourself a favor- make no assumptions about me. I listen to NPR every day and I read the NY times.
Bush did increase the size of government, but it was his Medicare initiatives that were the worst culprit.
Those ‘republicans’ are gone. I had a problem with them in 2005, as did the rest of the conservatives, apparently. I have no love for the gop, only values.
@TAMARLANE Where …
@TAMARLANE Where you were when the Republicans were appointing all of their czars? I guess you think that having no more American auto industry and buying Japanese cars would preserve the “American way of life”
@phlegmish Your …
@phlegmish Your responce makes no sense whatsoever. I would also like to point out Canada is an ally of the US in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe you should rant about your own country dont ya think? By the way, Iraq has never been secular. Maybe if you’ve ever been there you’d know this or you can read about the different religious sects that exsists. By the way, I’m not Christian. I’m a free thinker. Learn your history and know what you comment on.
@newyorkairsoft …
@newyorkairsoft Where do you think the word sabotage came from? Poor workers would jam their sabots (Wooden shoes) into machines to break them so that they wouldn’t take their jobs.
@phlegmish The ” …
@phlegmish The “rich” pay over 73% of all taxes. In case you didn’t know or understand the latest report, 47% of Americans pay no income tax at all. You sound like our Marxist president and probably believe that you should only be ALLOWED to earn whatever amount the government deems acceptable. By the way, your health care isnt “free.” Those taxes PAY for it.
@BruCru62 Seems to …
@BruCru62 Seems to me that the only ones profiting from this man made recession are the elites. If I remember correctly Detroit is dying because the corporations moved their plants to states where workers had no rights and got paid a lot cheaper. True Capitalism leads to wealth for a few and downtrodden workers for the rest with nobody in the middle. I prefer a mix of the 2 like we have in Canada and Europe. Corporations shouldn’t rule everything including Gov’t
@BruCru62 Typical …
@BruCru62 Typical Liberal snob? What the heck does that even mean. BTW: I’m a conservative. Not a Stephen Harper Republican though. Harper even takes FOX talking points and says if we discuss the war then we don’t support the troops. So un Canadian. Name a freedom that America has given the world in the last 30 years?
As for Tea Partiers. I’ve never seen a more ill informed bunch of yahoo racists in my life. They actually think that Obama raised their taxes. That he made Gov’t bigger. Yikes.
@bigbigblue111 …
@bigbigblue111 Touché
@phlegmish
I …
@phlegmish
I wouldn’t go back to any artificial ‘standard.’ That’s what got us into trouble in the first place. That’s why I support Ron Paul’s
HR 4248, Free Competition in Currency Act.
Why should the Federal Reserve have a monopoly on money? — especially considering that its privately owned member banks merely “print” what they lend-out at interest. It’s a fraud.
As for the other agencies, they’ll disappear if there’s a currency crisis. State control is better than Federal, anyway.
@phlegmish
You …
@phlegmish
You couldn’t be more wrong! Capitalism is the only way an economy can survive! Capitalism gives EVERYONE the same opportunity to succeed, while socialism ensures that only the elites will be successful. A prime example of socialism’s failure is Detroit. Once the mecca of industrial might and innovativeness, it now sits a barren wasteland where homes are selling in hundreds of dollars. All because the socialists tried to re-engineer society.